The death of Bacon, by leaving the republicans without a head, revived the courage of the governor so far, that he ventured in his ships to move about upon the bay and rivers and attack the inhabitants wherever he could find them defenceless, and snatch a little plunder to gratify his needy followers; always retiring when the opposite party appeared to oppose him. This predatory species of warfare, preventing the quiet pursuit of agricultural labors, and destroying all the comfort and happiness of society without producing any beneficial result, soon grew wearisome to both parties. Sir William Berkeley whose cruelties, especially to his prisoners* had gone far to keep up the enthusiasm of popular excitement, finding that his name had ceased to strike that awe which habitual respect for one high in authority had formerly given it, and that his punishments excited indignation rather than terror, felt disposed to take advantage by milder means of the returning pacific disposition on the part of a people whose stubborn tempers could not be brought into obedience by force. With this view he treated his prisoners with more liberality, published an act of general indemnity, and proposed a treaty of peace to Ingram and Walklate, the principal leaders of the opposing party since the death of Bacon. So anxious were the people to be relieved from the present confusion and anarchy, and the governor once more to rule with uncurbed sway, that a treaty was speedily concluded, only stipulating on the part of the governor a general oblivion, and indemnity of past offences, and on the part of his opponents a surrender of their arms and a restoration of such property as they had taken. Thus easily did these unfortunate men deliver themselves again into the lions power, after having defeated him at all points, and inflicted deep and irremediable wounds upon his inflated vanity, and pompous mockdignity. The governor when he had his enemies in his power, instead of trying to heal the wounds of the bleeding state by mildness and conciliation, only added to its sufferings by a bloody retribution for all the trouble which he had been made to endure. Fines and confiscations for the benefit of his excellency became the order of the day, and an occasional execution as an extra treat to his vengeance. He at first attempted to wrest the honest juries of the county to his purpose, but in vain,-ten prisoners were acquitted in a single day. Finding that his enemies were thus likely to escape his grasp by the unflinching integrity, and sense of justice prevailing among the people, he determined to avoid the use of a court constituted upon principles of the English constitution, which he found so little subservient to his will; and tried his next victims under martial law. He here found a court of more congenial spirits. The commissioners of the king give an account of some of these trials, such as they were carried on even after their arrival, which mark well the spirit of the times." We also observed some of the royal party, that sat on the bench with us at the trial, to be so forward in impeaching, accusing, reviling, the prisoners at bar, with that inveteracy, as if they had been the worst of witnesses, rather than justices of the commission; both accusing and condemning at the same time. This severe way of proceeding represented to the assembly, they voted an address to the governor, that he would desist from any further sanguinary punishments, for none could tell when or where it would terminate. So the governor was prevailed on to hold his hands, after hanging 23.”† A notable way which the governor adopted to replenish his purse *See Sarah Drummond's petition,-Hening, vol. II. p. 558. + Breviare and Conclusum in Burke, vol. II. p. 258. after the disasters of the war, was to relieve the rebels from a trial in one of his courts martial, in which they were to be condemned, upon their paying him a great portion of their estates, by way of compromise. This method of disposing of men's estates without trial or conviction was protested against by his majesty's commissioners as a gross violation of the laws of England, but which Sir William's friends seem to think only a just retribution for the losses sustained by himself and the royal party during the rebellion.* Enormous fines payable in provision were also found a convenient method of providing for the king's troops which had been sent over to subdue the colony. His majesty's commissioners fortunately arrived in time to stay the wrath of the vindictive old man, who would as an eye witness says, "he verily believes, have hanged half the county if they had let him alone." They urged him in vain to publish the king's proclamation of a general pardon and indemnity, and then proceeded to hold their commission for hearing and redressing grievances. As the proceedings of the governor diffused a gloom, the generality of which was co-extensive with the immense numbers that were engaged in the rebellion, so did the proceedings of the commissioners spread a universal joy. Crowds of persons now came forward to present their grievances; widows and orphans to ask for the confiscated estites of their husbands, and fathers who had been butchered by the military tribunals of the governor; others come in to complain of the seizing their estates without the form of a trial, and many who had submitted themselves upon the governor's proclamation of indemnity and pardon, conplained of subsequent imprisonment and confiscations of their property. The commissioners state in their report to the king and council,—that "in the whole course of their proceedings they had avoided receiving any complaints of public grievances; but by and under the hand of the most credible, loyal and sober persons of each county, with caution, that they did not do it in any mutinous manner, and without mixture of their old leaven, but in such sort as might become dutiful subjects and sober, rational men to present." When they found that all their representations to Sir William Berkeley, to endeavor to induce him to restore the confiscated estates, which were in the possession of himself or his most faithful friends, were in vain, they ascertained as many of the possessors as possible, and made them give security to take care of them, until his majesty should determine as to the restitution, which they recommended him to make. The commissioners also devised several matters of utility for the peace, good government and safety of the colony, which they recommended his majesty to adopt. Sir William Berkeley returned in the fleet to England, leaving Sir Herbert Jeffries, who had been sent over with the commissioners, as governor.— Upon his arrival he found that his cruel conduct in Virginia was looked upon with horror by most of his former friends, and the council, and was not sustained by the king, subservient loyalty to whom had been the source and spring of his high-handed measures. The old knight, thus finding himself execrated in Virginia, and despised in England, soon languished and died under the load of infamy, with which he had crushed the fair fame of his earlier years. Thus ended the life of Sir William Berkeley, a governor, whose early character historians have delighted to honor, and * Justification of Berkeley, in Burke, vol. II. p. 263. + Pressly, quoted in Burke, vol. II. p. 208. whose subsequent conduct they have sought to excuse; but of whom we can find nothing better upon record, than the negative merit of not opposing the legislature in its schemes of government, in the early part of his reign; but whose latter years are disgraced by cowardly imbecillity, and stained with crime. Before we take leave of the transaction which has been termed in complaisance to the royal governor, Bacon's Rebellion, it may not be amiss to cast a hurried glance at the laws passed by the Legislature which met under his influence; which must go far with posterity in determining whether the name of rebels or patriots would be most consistent with the character of their acts. They strike first at the most important and pressing subject, and the one which had been most neglected, the Indian war. They provide efficient means for conducting it, and for regulating the army. The next act prescribed regulations for Indian trading, the abuse of which was thought to have been very mischievous. They next pray his majesty's governor and council that the lands which had been set apart at the last peace exclusively for the Indians, and which had been or might be subsequently deserted by them, might not be granted away to individuals, but might be used for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the war. The fourth act looks very little like an encouragement of rebellion, -reciting that tumults, riots and unlawful assemblies had recently been frequent, they make it the duty of every officer, civil and military in the country, to aid in suppressing them, and the duty of all citizens to assist such officers under penalty of punishment for refusal, and the governor is specially requested to assemble a force at the public charge with all possible expedition, to suppress such tumults, and inflict condign punishment upon the offenders; which says the act "will conduce to the great safety and peace of this country, and enable us the better to defend ourselves against the barbarous and common enemy." This single act sheds more light upon the history of the times and exhibits more plainly the history of the views of the principal actors than any or perhaps all other documents; we see in it the reason why no private persons took advantage of the unsettled state of affairs to disturb the public peace, and that there was no tumult or armed force except the regular army raised by the Assembly and put under Bacon's command, and no rebellious assembly except the miscreant crew raised by Berkeley in opposition to the government established by the people. Having thus provided for safety from foes without and for peace within, the Assembly next proceeded to the investigation of abuses by civil officers. Under this head they made several provisions for the prevention of abuses, which have been found so well devised that they have continued in use to the present day. They next provide against the long continuance of vestries in office; for the election of burgesses by freemen as well as freeholders; and against false returns of burgesses. Their eighth act provides against abuses committed by the justices in laying county levies, and requires that a number of discreet men chosen by the people, equal in number to the justices appointed by the governor, should act with the justices in laying the county levy. They next empowered the county courts to select their own collectors of county levies and dues; and prohibit any member of the Council from sitting on the county court bench. Passing some acts of less general importance, but which were wise and useful, we come to an act of general pardon and indemnity for all crimes committed between the first of March and twenty-fifth of June, passed "out of a hearty and pious desire to put an end to all suits and controversies, that by occasion of the late fatal distractions have arisen," "and to bury all seeds of future discord and remembrance of anything whereby the citizens might be obnoxious to any pains or penalties whatsoever." Their last act deprives Edward Hill and John Stith forever of the right to hold any office of trust, judicature, or profit, because it was notoriously manifest that they had been the greatest instruments in raising, promoting, and stirring up the late differences and misunderstanding that had arisen between the honorable governor and his majesty's good and loyal subjects. The acts of this Assembly were signed by Berkeley in all due form, but were subsequently all declared void, though many of them were re-enacted by the Legislature, which under the influence and control of Berkeley, declared them void. Although the people of Virginia had laid down their arms they were not subdued, but continued to manifest through their Legislature the same undaunted tenacity of their rights which had ever characterised them. This was exhibited towards the king's commissioners in one of the boldest defences of privilege which the records of any nation can exhibit, and shows how strongly imbued with the spirit of freedom the people must have been when they could snuff the approach of tyranny at such a distance, and put themselves on their defence against their friends, lest their enemies might take advantage of their concessions. The king's commissioners were empowered to call for persons and papers, for the purpose of prosecuting more effectually their inquiries into the grievances of the colony. In conformity with their powers they called upon the secretary of the Legislature for its journals, but were surprised to find that although their proceedings were popular, and their object was to investigate and redress grievances of which these very men complained, that they refused to allow them to inspect their journals, returning for answer that it was a dangerous precedent which might be used in violation of their priviliges. At this time the governor and commissioners had complete physical power over the colony by the entire absence of anything like organized opposition, and from the presence of the king's troops; and availing themselves of this power they did not hesitate to wrest the journals of the Assembly from the hands of its officer by force. Upon which the Virginia Assembly published a bold and manly declaration, setting forth "that his majesty's commissioners having called for and forced from the clerk of the Assembly all the original journals of the Assembly, which power they supposed his majesty would not grant them, for that they find not the same to have been practised by any of the kings of England, and did therefore take the same to be a violation of their privileges, desiring withall satisfaction to be given them that they might be assured no such violation of their privileges should be offered for the future." The king was so much displeased with this declaration, that although he pardoned the members of the Legislature, he directed the record of it to be erased, and required the governor to propose a bill to the next General Assembly condemning the proceeding, and declaring the right of his majesty and his officers to call for all the public records and journals whenever they shall think it necessary for his royal service.* *Hening, vol II. p 561. Sir Herbert Jeffries deserves the merit due to an advantageous treaty with the Indians, and a successful opposition to the petty intrigues of the loyalists. He died in 1678, leaving the colony in the hands of the Lieutenant governor, Sir Henry Chickerly, during whose administration magazines and forts were established at the heads of the four great rivers to overawe the savages, and a silly act passed prohibiting the importation of tobacco from Carolina and Maryland for the purpose of transhipment, which practice if they had suffered it to continue might have proved very profitable to the colony, besides putting the tobacco trade more exclusively into its own hands. In the succeeding spring Sir Henry delivered the government to Lord Culpeper. The first act of his lordship was to declare full and unqualified indemnity to all for their conduct in Bacon's rebellion, and allowing reparation to those who should be reproached for their conduct upon that occasion. This popular act, added to the pleasing and conciliatory manners of his lordship, so won upon the good-natured simplicity of the Assembly, that they passed an act which probably no force could have extorted from them. They raised the duties and made them perpetual instead of annual as before, and what was at once surrendering up the great bulwark of that freedom for the safety of which they had been so long contending, they made the duties henceforth subject to his majesty's sole direction and disposal. The king rewarded Culpeper's address in obtaining this acquisition to his power, by the addition of a thousand pounds to his salary and one hundred and sixty pounds per annum for his rent. The Assembly too, as if they could not do enough for a royal governor who could condescend to smile upon them, granted his excellency a regular duty proportionate to the tonnage of every vessel trading to Virginia. Culpeper having thus obtained a considerable increase to his revenue by his trip to Virginia, proceeded to England to enjoy it, leaving the colony once inore with Sir Henry Chicherly. The discontents of the people again began to extend to a degree which could scarcely be kept within bounds. The troops which had been sent over to suppress Bacon's Rebellion were still kept up. There were no barracks and the people positively refused to receive these idle and troublesome drones into their houses, although they were regularly billeted by the government. The low price of tobacco too was a never failing source of complaint, as well as the commercial regulations which aided in producing it. The colony had urged Culpeper to exert his influence at court to procure a cessation from planting, to which they had for some time in vain endeavored to obtain the assent of Carolina and Maryland. To these evils another was now added which struck another blow at commerce. The idea had been conceived that the colony could not prosper without towns, and to promote their growth the planters living principally on the shores of the magnificent Chesapeake and the broad navigable rivers of Virginia, were required to bring their produce to particular spots for the purpose of being shipped. Thus taxing the planter with unnecessary freight and commission for the benefit of such idlers as might congregate in the towns. These acts were enforced by heavy penalties, and as they contributed very much to the benefit of the town's people, the penalty for the violation was rigorously enforced. These prosecutions drove many traders from the country, and the poor planters to whom it was physically impossible to convey their crops to these paper-towns, were |